Mughal Miniature Painting - An Alternative Source of History

An
important painting surviving almost intact from
1618 and now in the Smithsonian shows two regal
personages in embrace standing atop a sheep and
a lion respectively, who in turn rest blissfully
on a globe. Inscriptions reveal the former to be
Shah Abbas, the emperor of Persia during the period
in question. The regent poised on the wild beast
tamed is Jahangir, the fourth great emperor in
the Mughal lineage and also the patron who commissioned
this artwork.

Now, this is a strange painting
because it is well known in history that these
two personalities never met in actuality. Thus,
this magnificent piece of Mughal art is fanciful
to say the least. Can such a whimsical, ahistorical
visualization act as a source of historical information?
Consider the following salient features characterizing
it:

1). The globe in the picture
is much accurately rendered signifying that modern
scientific ideas had already reached the imperial
Mughal court.

2). Both kings are depicted
in the traditional costumes of their respective
nations. Indeed, in 1613 Jahangir had sent an embassy
to Shah Abbas that had a renowned portraitist named
Bishndas accompanying it. Inscriptions say that
this figure of the Shah was based upon portraits
made by Bishndas. Thus, the two personalities have
been authentically perceived in this apparently
fictional composition.

3). Jahangir has been rendered
larger in stature and is shown embracing the Persian
emperor in an almost condescending manner. In truth,
Shah Abbas was a powerful opponent and a contestant
for the city of Qandahar which guarded the Mughals'
northwestern frontier and was of much strategic
importance. In fact, the Persians took Qandahar
in 1622, when Jahangir was too preoccupied with
the rebellion of his own son Shahjahan to stop
them. Unlike his illustrious father Akbar who had
to fight each and every inch of his way to consolidate
and expand the Mughal Empire, Jahangir inherited
a comfortable and secure existence which was both
shaped and influenced by his passive and comfort-loving
nature and an excessive fondness for both opium
and wine. Hence, unable and unwilling to take on
his rival militarily, the great Mughal emperor
Jahangir instead had a fantasy where the submissive
king of Persia paid homage to the formers' own
towering presence. Very aptly, the artwork is entitled
'Jahangir's Dream.' What greater insight can there
be to the inner workings of an emperor's mind?

4). While the Persian king stands
on a meek looking sheep, Jahangir has been perceived
as a mighty presence, standing over a much larger
lion. Significantly, the lion has nudged the sheep
almost into the Mediterranean, another instance
of Jahangir's wishful thinking, or was it some
latent Mughal ambition flowing in his veins?

5). Nevertheless, lest the Shah
take offence at the unfair treatment meted out
to him (even in a dream), Jahangir has very magnanimously
allowed the former to share the refulgent halo
in the background, this being another pointer to
his pacifist nature. This composite halo is formed
of both the sun and the moon and is upheld by angels
(an assertion of European influence).

Evidently this painting, borne
out of the rich tradition of Mughal art, has much
to say over and above what lies at its surface.

The Fundamental Question Confronting Arts

The art of painting is often
made to face a question: Is it an instrument that
calibrates past, a picture, a camera vision of
something that has been once in existence, exists
currently or is likely to come into existence,
a situation, event or occurrence that has once
taken place, the likeness of a person who has once
lived, or his class or society that has once prevailed
and so on? The questions, as to whether art is
different from history or is only one of its alternative
sources, and, whether an Indian miniature is different
in this regard from other classes of paintings
or not, haunt the minds of art critics and as often
the conference halls of academic institutions.

Such questions are naturally
sequential, for our mind is always keen to discover
in art, whatever its genre, the world that it realizes
through its senses or by its intellect and other
faculties. It craves to see in a 'created thing',
such as art is, its own 'realities', what it sees,
feels, experiences or knows, or has ever felt,
experienced and known, a world that it has seen
beyond this 'created version'. In general perception,
visual arts are seen as only visually re-presenting
'things'. Hence, this curiosity in regard to visual
arts, the curiosity to see the 're-presented' in
them, is one of the fundamental impulses, which
conditions the mind viewing a work of art. It desires
to see the 'realistic face' of the 'created thing',
though at the same time delights nonetheless when
it perceives imagination innovating further dimensions
of this 'reality', or creating of its own something
that has an absolutely different face. Categorically,
this leads the appreciating eye to class a work
of art, either as 'realistic' or as 'conceptualized,
or 'imagined', a sheer product of artist's fancy.

An Indian Miniature: Whether Realistic or Imagined?

As regards an Indian miniature,
it may be anything but hardly ever, except sometimes,
as in its late deteriorating phase, a product of
sheer artistic fancy. While seeking to classify
miniature paintings, let two things be borne in
mind. The miniature art was by and large a commissioned
thing requiring the artist to paint the 'desired',
something that delighted his patron or served any
of his needs, the spiritual, aesthetic or sensuous.
It is quite obvious that a patron was not expected
to pay for artist's own fancy, whims or sycophancy.
The miniature art was thus conditioned by patron's
preferences. Its theme, hence, comprised broadly
of something, some reality, material or mental,
an idea or ideal, which its patron would have liked
to see translated into lines and colors. Miniaturist's
fancy had obviously little role. At the most, it
could be used to delete or minimize, or sophisticate,
the crudeness or to add to the 'real', when the
'real' itself was crude or ugly, some degree of
aesthetic refinement, as his patron would not have
liked to see his 'reality' bearing a crude face.
Hence, the miniature art had but only little room
for fancy or imagination. Even when the miniaturist
was required to paint his patron's fancy, he was
often realistic as the master's fancy was servant's
reality.

Secondly, when the miniaturist
appeared on the scene, India had already developed
a massive tradition of art, architecture and sculpture
along with associated aesthetics and formative
principles. She had great literature, well sustained
theology, versatile mythology, tradition of unparalleled
heroism, thought and learning, that is, she had
an all round enormously great past. Obviously,
the miniaturist, as well as his patron, was bound
to inherit not only several of its stylistic features
but also the major bulk of themes from it. It was
often a truth of past, or a truth of mythology,
but in it he always perceived his 'real', that
is, the truth of the tradition was miniaturist's
'reality' by perception, and this, despite that
it was materially non-existent, or may be classed
as 'unreal', was treated with utmost realism and
with unique thrust, and it is in this quality that
an Indian miniature is par excellence. In an Indian
miniature the Shiva family, a mythical entity,
has a more realistic face than has the family of
a human born rustic living in a remote hamlet.

Thus, more often, an Indian
miniature is a picture but hardly ever a camera
vision of things. It always has an edge over what
the lens of a camera captures. It calibrates past
but not like a record keeper. A miniature is realistic
but not by the reality of the thing that it depicts
but by its own perception of it. It is in treating
a theme that an Indian miniature has its realism.
Different from a creation of fancy or even imagination,
it inclines to record the 'real', although unlike
histories, or social sciences, which record facts
or the analytical body of such facts, both keeping
changing. A miniature discovers, on the contrary,
their realism, the real face of these facts, something,
which does not change. A miniature is, thus, both
imaginative and realistic, but it is not imaginative
in the sense in which are some of the abstract
or symbolic art modes that seek to transform a
materially 'existent' into an abstract symbol.
Its realism is also not that of a mechanical copier
reproducing a thing verbatim. The truth of an Indian
miniature stands midway, somewhere in between the
'real' and the 'unreal', or imagined, and it is
in this dilemma that it discovers its uniqueness.
The miniaturist represents the 'real' as he has
'realised' it, a thing not as it has been but as
it has been perceived, that is, a reality re-cast,
or re-modeled first by perception and then by art
treatment.

A Vast Range and Dimensional Diversity of Indian Miniature Art

The observations made in the
foregoing part are, however, only broad based.
Indian miniature art had a massive past of about
a millennium across many turbulent epochs of political
and social history. Cultural and religious shifts
were nonetheless significant. These were as much
the concerns of art, especially the art of miniature
painting, which always looked to politics and society
for patronage and to religion and culture for its
themes and preferences. They defined various phases
of its growth and development as well of its deterioration
and decadence. Obviously, what has been said before
defines only the general inclination that tends
to be realistic, but assessing the 999 A.D. Buddhist
text Prajnaparmita and Nimatnama (a book of recipes),
or Baburnama illustrations and rendition depicting
Krishna stealing butter using same parameters might
hardly do justice to either of them.

Theme, kind of patronage, cultural
conditions, religious bindings and the over-all
ethos of an era often determined the fact-fiction
ratio, thrust and preferences, role of imagination
and adherence to realism, recourse to myths, legends,
tradition and history and an over-all character
of art. Prajnaparmita, being a sacred book, was
bound to have a tale-tell character and moral thrust;

Preparation
of Sweets for the Sultan of Mandu, circa
1495 - 1505.
The Nimatnama is a recipe book in Persian
with methods for cooking all sorts of delicacies,
aphrodisiacs, and other epicurean delights.
The text is illustrated with 50 miniatures,
showing the king looking on while some of
his innumerable women attendants prepare
the dishes.

Nimatnama, a recipe book, was
required by its theme to be informative;

Baburnama, the memoirs of Mughal
emperor Babur, had to be factual and historical
in its approach;

and, the depiction of Krishna
stealing butter could only be fanciful and fictional.

Indian mythology had illustrative
thrust while Islam illuminative. The great Mughal
emperor Akbar preferred serialization of texts
while his grandson Shahjahan random detached themes.
The early Mewar (seat of Rajputs) rulers preferred
religious and classical themes whereas their descendants
loved to see in art harem life, hunting and pursuits
of luxuries. Hence, for a fuller appreciation of
the art of Indian miniature painting it is required
that each phase of its growth and each of its dimensions
is dealt with singly and in appropriate details.
Considering its very limited scope this article
proposes to survey here onward Mughal miniatures
for exploring how far they might serve as an alternative
source of history.

Mughal Miniatures as an Alternative Source of History

Painters
and Calligraphers Working in the Royal Atelier
(An Illustration from the Akhlaq-i-Nasiri
of Nasir ud-Din Tusi), circa 1590 - 1595
(Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection).

Mughal art in India is divided
broadly into four phases, three of these phases
being those of the proper Mughal art, that is,
the art created at the official atelier of Mughal
court by its court artists under direction and
supervision of the Mughal emperors themselves,
the fourth phase being that of the Subai (provincial)
Mughal art. The reigns of three of the great Mughals,
Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan, define practically
the first three phases of Mughal art. Akbar initiated
the art of painting at Mughal court by setting
up, or expanding a prior royal atelier and employing
in it over a hundred best skilled painters.

Illustrating classics of both
Indian and Persian origins and Hindu and Islamic
traditions was the prime thrust of Akbar's art.
Jahangir added to it nature study, art of portrayal,
especially the female portraits and the stylistic
sophistication. Shahjahan loved renditions of individualized
things. Lavish embellishment, courtly grandeur
and a little over-sophistication marked the art
of his era.

The Subai Mughal art defines
the deteriorating phase of both, Mughal art style
and Mughal power. After the Mughal power weakened,
Mughals' Subai heads proclaimed independence. They,
however, continued with Mughalia life-style including
Mughals' sophistication and their art style of
miniature painting. The taste was, however, replaced
by mannerism, sophistication by too much of ornamentation
and the real spirit by crude sensuousness. Thus,
different from the proper Mughal art style the
Subai, or Provincial Mughal art is Mughal only
in its poor stylistic adherence.

Each of these phases apparently
had its own thrust, preferences and options, themes
and, to some extent, stylistic features. To Akbar,
a miniature was a book inscribed in lines and colors.
To Jahangir, a painting manifested the aestheticism
inherent in a man. To Shahjahan, it was a mirror
palace and there he was in every glass-piece. To
the provincial Nawabs, a painting was as sensuous
a thing as was a nautch-girl.

However, despite such points
of departure, there are threads that bind, at least
the three phases of the proper Mughal art, into
a uniform art style, the more important of them
all being its realistic approach to the depicted
theme, or the realism. As such, the Mughal art
is the mirror wherein one discovers not so much
the Mughal world as the world of Mughal days, the
world of nature, the world of commercial activities,
the world of social courtesies, merriment, pastime,
warfare and what not.

Squirrels,
A Peacock and a Pea-Hen, Sarua Cranes and
Fishes by artist Bhawani, circa 1598 (National
Museum, New Delhi).
The artist of this painting Bhawani, excelled
in painting birds and animals. In the upper-half
can be seen squirrels playing in a tree.
In the middle, a peacock and peahen are
shown, below a pair of sarus cranes, and
in the pond a pair of fishes. It is one
of the best paintings of birds and
animals
in the Babur Nama.

Written histories do not reveal
the colors of a bird's feathers but a Mughal miniature
does. It reveals not only Babur's intrinsic strength
but also the sportive frisking of squirrels and
the romance of a peacock couple.

Babur
and Companions Warming Themselves Before
a Camp Fire (Illustration to the Baburnama),circa
1598
(National Museum, New Delhi).
This painting of a night scene shows Babur's
qualities of leadership; his concern for
his men and comradely treatment
he gave
them in times of adversity.

Chroniclers record that Babur,
while on his way to Kabul to suppress a mutiny
there, spent with his nobles and animals a freezing
winter night in forest under open sky.

The
Battle of Panipat (Illustration to the
Baburnama), circa 1598
(National Museum,
New Delhi).

The miniaturist depicts the
frozen bodies of Babur and his companions wrapped
in woolens, carefully protected horses, fearful
face of the sky, the darkness of night with screaming
jackals piercing it ominously, Babur's confidence
and the colors of burning hearth. A folio depicting
the battle of Panipat in Baburnama records more
minutely each and every detail of the action -
Babur's strategy of dividing his forces into different
sections and launching in simultaneity the offensive
from all directions baffling the larger army of
Ibrahim Lodi, use of a large range of canons besides
the conventional arms like bows and arrows, swords,
spears, lances and the kind of armor used by Babur
and his soldiers, Babur's versatile leadership,
his zeal, the hilly terrain and so on.

The Mughal Art before Akbar

Practically, the art of Mughal
miniature painting begins with Akbar, who reigned
from 1556-1605. However, two miniatures, the Portrait
of a Young Scholar (1549-1556) and Prince Akbar
Hunting a Nilgae (1555-1560), in characteristic
Persian style, or at least in a style much different
from the subsequent style of Akbar's court, suggest
the existence of some kind of atelier, or art activity
prevailing at the court of Akbar's father Humayun
as well.

The treatment is the same
realistic. The identity of the scholar is lost,
yet the portrait
reveals the image of the man as it was in the concurrent
society and the character of scripture under Islamic
norms prevalent in Persia.

Even a scholar was required
to carry a dagger and not only the scripture but
also its stand had to be illuminated and well adorned.
If not the history of the 'individual', the painting
reveals at least some aspect of his society and
its art perception.

The Art of Akbar's Era

Whatever the stylistic changes,
the art of Akbar's era continues this spirit
of 'being realistic' in its approach. Akbar ruled
for almost five decades. He was near fourteen,
when he ascended the throne of Mughal Empire.
In
almost no time he began gearing up everything,
even the atelier at Mughal court, in whatever
shape it was. Much before 1560, that is, within
four
years of his ascendance, his artists were at
work. Thus, art had at Akbar's court a tenure of
some
forty-five long years. Akbar was illiterate and
wished to know a book not by its linguistics
but by the pictorial representation of its theme.
Thus
for him, a painting was a book. He hence preferred
illustrative painting serializing a theme, whatever
its kind, a book of tales, legends, history,
religion, theology, astrology and so on. He did
not approve
fanciful renditions, or even much of random depictions.
He could accept legends, romances, ghost tales,
even superstitions but only when they reached
his atelier through an authentic channel, literary,
traditional or even folk. Obviously, his artist
had to adhere to the fact, no matter even if
it
was a fact born of fiction, but he could not
recourse to his own fiction, even when such fiction
brought
the fact round-about. Thus, Akbar's art is always the
authentic statement of a theme.

Babur
Meeting Khanzada Begam, Mehr Banu Begam and
Other Ladies by artist Mansur (Illustration
to the Baburnama), circa 1598 (National Museum,
New Delhi).
Khanzada Begam was the sister of Baur. When
he was forced to evacuate Samarkand in 1500
A.D. he was compelled to marry her to Shaibani
Khan, his enemy. Shaibani Khan was defeated
by Shah Ismail of Persia, who killed him
and made a drinking cup of his skull. Babur
thus describes his reunion with his sister:

"
Khanzada Begam was in Merv when Shah Ismail
(Safavi) defeated the Auzbegs near that town
(916 A.H. = 1510 A.D.); for my sake he treated
her well, giving her a sufficient escort
to Qunduz where she rejoined me. We had been
apart for some ten years."

It should not, however, be mistaken
to mean that artists of Akbar's court were re-producing
histories or factual data of an event or a subject
matter in contemplation. Authenticity confined
to an authentic perception of the painted thing
and extended to many more dimensions, which histories-like
factual writings would ignore. Babur's four year
tenure, or rather sojourn in India was spent almost
on horse-back fighting a recurrent series of battles.
His autobiography Baburnama accounts for most of
them. But when translated into lines and colors
at his grandson Akbar's atelier, battles, warfare,
massacres, violence, polity occupy only some small
space of its canvas. On the contrary, society,
customs, courtesies, feasting, progress of a work
undertaken and inspection of construction sites,
visits to faqirs, holy places, houses of relatives,
meetings, conversations, consultations and moments
of leisure are in greater focus.

A
Market Scene at Kand-E-Badam, Weighing and
Transport of Almonds by artist Sur Das (Illustration
to the Baburnama), circa 1598 (National Museum,
New Delhi).

One knows from its folios how
people managed to cross a river in floods, how
looked the face of nature, its birds, animals and
well laid gardens, how people traded and weighed
their goods, how helpless were even holy ones like
Dervishes before a cyclone-like natural calamity,
how pitiably died horses, camels and other animals
when an epidemic broke, how treaties were made
and peace established and so on.

The early works of Akbar's atelier,
such as Hamzanama, the story of Amir Hamza, Tutinama,
the tales of a parrot, Duval Rani Khizr Khan, the
Persian romance of Duval Rani and Khizr Khan, Gulstan,
the Rose-garden of Sadi, Anvar-i-Suhayli, and T'arikh-Alfi,
or the history of a thousand year, are stylistically
different from its later works. But, as regards
their perception they show an alike amazing uniformity.
T'arikh-Alfi is a book of history and Shahnama
a poetically narrated history. Their painted folios
obviously resort to significant historical events,
which also included matters related to Islam, as
Islam was a new upcoming sect dominating the entire
Arab world including Persia. Timurnama, Chingiznama,
Baburnama and Akbarnama are histories composed
as biographies and autobiographies. These too are
factual in their treatment and are authentic sources
to know the concurrent epochs of past.

Celebrated
Dancers from Mandu Perform Before Akbar (Illustration
to the Akbarnama), circa 1590 - 1605.
Observe the costume of the dancers, out of
tune with the rest of the court.

What is more significant is
the fact that the emphasis of their illustrated
version is not so much on depicting political or
court related matters as on surveying the over-all
contemporary scenario, whatever its direction.
In them, one finds what were people's chosen colors
for dresses and what their dressing models and
modalities. Historical data reports Mughal victory
over Mandu, the capital of Malwa, and presenting
to emperor Akbar the war booty, including some
dancers, but it is only the artist of Akbar's court
who sees and records that the dancing girls wore
European costume and were perhaps of European origin.
It shows that much before Mughals, Indian rulers
had multifarious transactions with European world.

The illustrations based on these
texts, thus, enable to know and apprehend history
but more significant is that through them one knows
past and its many avenues better than he knows
from conventionally written histories. Thus, these
illustrated works of Akbar's era are actually the
additional sources of history as in them one discovers
more than what the conventionalized factual histories
contain.

Jahangir's Art (1605 - 1627)

Jahangir's love for the art
of painting was no less, and for realism it was
more. Under him, Akbar's energetic naturalism was
refined into a calmer and intensely realistic style
capable of revealing not only the outer appearance
but also its unique inner spirit. Actually, as
a rebel prince, he set up his independent studio
at Allahabad much before he ascended the Mughal
throne under the Persian painters Aqa Riza and
his son Abu Hasan. He had equal appreciation for
both, the simple version of his father's court
art and the precise, flat and highly decorative
style of Persian art, which Aqa Riza and his son
practiced. After he ascended as the Emperor of
Hindustan, he inspired his artists to develop their
own individual styles, traits and talent and each
to have a specialized area, Abu Hasan the court
scenes and official portraits, Mansur nature study
and history, Daulat all kinds of portraits and
so on. Akbar's large volumes produced collectively
weren't his choice. He favored elegant, small works
with fewer illustrations worked singly by an artist.
There was a shift in choice of themes also. Pleasures
and pastimes of court life, portraits, studies
of birds, animals and flowers, scenes derived from
reproductions of European art, studies of holy
men and so on were now the more favored subjects
for painters.

This suggests that Jahangir
used art as both, as a thing of aesthetic beauty
delighting the senses and heart, and as a record
of those days, something that stored a thing or
a moment for the concurrent human intellect as
well for future. Whenever Jahangir was on outing
for a pastime, hunting, or whatever, a team of
his skilled artists accompanied him. A bird with
the beauty of its feathers, or by its sportive
frisking, or an unusual object, an animal, flower
or anything, would catch his attention. He had
no camera to click this phenomenon, a reality so
beautiful, alluring, rare and strange. He, however,
had his talented artists and one, or more, would
arrest it on his canvas for their master. It seems,
Jahangir was conscious of the fact that over a
period of time many of the creatures and things
would perish and, unless their likeliness was recorded
in all exactness, posterity would have no idea
of this erstwhile beautiful world. Jahangir's art,
thus, presents the most authentic, and as much
beautiful, natural history and to scholars studying
birds and animals it is yet the most reliable data
of the animal world of those days.

In fact, Jahangir's most valuable
contribution to the knowledge of zoology was a
portrait of the Mauritian bird, the dodo (Raphus
cucullatus). An important link in the evolution
of ducks, this flightless, primitive bird had become
extinct by the end of the seventeenth century, "thanks
to the active gastronomic interest taken in it
by visiting European soldiers." Modern scholars
wishing to know its features had to depend for
long on a not very accurate drawing by the Flemish
artist Ronald Savery, made at Amsterdam between
1626 and 1628, while a Mughal depiction (attributed
to the great artist Mansur) lay in oblivion. Dr.
A. Ivanov of St Petersburg (Leningrad) discovered
it in the collection of the Institute of Oriental
studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His
paper created a sensation at the XII International
Ornithological Congress at Helsinki in 1958; for
this painting was found to be the most correct
representation of the dodo. It was correctly made
from a live specimen which seems to have been presented
to Jahangir by a foreign visitor. Professor Erwin
Stresemann has dated this miniature to the last
years of the emperor's life when ill-health had
stopped his pen, and thus deprived the world of
an eyewitness account of an exceedingly curious
bird by one of the most interesting figures in
Indian history and a naturalist par excellence.

Portrait
of Nurjahan circa 1740 - 1750, (National
Museum, New Delhi).

Human portraits define another
aspect of Jahangir's quest for record, this time
to record the likeness of human world. Islam did
not approve, or even his father Akbar did not favor
portrayal, but for Jahangir it was no more a prohibited
area, as without it the likeness of many, so distinguished
and great, would be lost. He was mad for the exceptional
beauty of his queen Nurjahan. But, was this 'Nur'
of 'Jahan', 'the light of the world' to be confined
to a harem?

He had exceptional regard for
a 'sufi', a saint, or divine, and paid visit to
his seat. But, had such 'sufi to remain confined
to his hut ? Jahangir had a big 'no'. He allowed
Nurjahan to be portrayed and brought 'sufis', saints
and divines, of course in the form of their portraits,
to the walls of the chambers of household. One
may not identify the portrayed figures today but
at one point of time they existed and were before
the eyes of the painter. Jahangir favored his artists
inscribed their names on their works. How could
a highly sensitive man, as was Jahangir, think
that the names of such wonderful artists were not
known to the posterity?

Two things, symbolism and art-fiction,
which immensely characterize Jahangir's art, however,
appear to be contrary to his quest for recording
the 'real'. But it actually does not. He wished
poverty was eradicated, or that he could end his
sworn enemy Malik Ambar, or that, as he was the
emperor of the world, the Shah of Persia came to
him to pay his homage, or his sense of great justice.

These were the intrinsic 'realities'
of Jahangir's personality and thus the facts of
history. His artists could realize them visually
but only with the aid of symbols and art-fiction
- Jahangir shooting the effigy of poverty or that
of Malik Ambar, or embracing Shah of Persia, or
Jahangir painted with a balance, or standing upon
the globe. Thus, in Jahangir's art the historical
perspective is not lost even in symbolic and fictional
representation of things.

Art of Painting under Shahjahan (1628 - 1658)

Instead of the art of painting,
architecture was Shahjahan's fascination. But,
he continued with the court atelier and Mughals'
cult of realism. Well-embellished portraits with
exact likeness of the portrayed figures were more
favored. On one of his portraits Shahjahan not
only made his signatures but also put a remark
acclaiming that the portrait represented his likeness
in perfect exactness.

The emphasis was now on court
scenes, scenes of outing, portrayal including female
portraits and other personalized things and occasions
but the approach was the same 'realistic'. One
does not find in the art of Shahjahan a battle
fought but a lot about the lavish life style, how
people lived, loved and enjoyed life. This is well
to be expected since Shahjahan inherited the largest
accumulated wealth ever in the Mughal lineage,
and no emperor before or after him ever had bestowed
upon him a richer legacy.

In a nutshell, Mughal art better
reveals the world of Mughal days than do written
histories or literary annals.

References and Further Reading

Beach, Milo Cleveland.
Mughal and Rajput Painting (The New Cambridge
History of India): Cambridge, 1992.

Cooper, David (ed).
A Companion to Aesthetics (Blackwell Companions
to Philosophy): Massachusetts, 1997.

Daljeet, Dr. Mughal
and Deccani Paintings (From the Collection
of the National Museum): New Delhi, 1999.

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It was wonderful to read this informative and historical article.

by Ahsan Habib on 12th Apr 2011

This article is an excellent overview of Mughal Miniature Paintings which as most people do not know is an INDIAN ART. Please do not confuse them as being Persian Miniatures. The Mughals were the last powerful descendants of the Mongols (Timurids) and ruled India for centuries (15th-18th centuries). The Central Asian Timurid Dynasty had embraced Persian culture and religion (Islam). Thus the Timurids had Turco-Mongol origins and Persian courtly culture and art. Since the Mughals were descendants of the Timurids, Mughal painting was influenced by the Persian style. However, many confuse the two languages (Persian and Urdu) and the art(Persian and Mughal miniatures) as the same but they are quite different.

by Dania on 16th Nov 2010

TÜRKİYE'den selamlar..

by Metin on 19th May 2009

Most of these art works are persian miniatures!..

by Leo on 10th Dec 2007

Who will read this all! its so much and unnessary. But excellent pictures.

by rabeeya on 13th Mar 2007

Excellent article. Thorough and beautifully illustrated. Thank you!

by Robin Rice on 16th Jan 2005

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"She has always believed that this would redeem her of her distress….A coconut, otherwise an ordinary dried fruit or the source of edible, or at the most, beauty oil, has always been revered as an auspicious object effecting good and well-being and the food that gods most loved….The tree in the Buddhist tradition was later identified as Bodhi-tree, seated under which Buddha had attained Enlightenment….Body gestures and symptoms, signs, indications among others must have been the early man’s tools of communicating oneself and knowing and understanding the world around….Kirttimukha was initially conceived as a mystical mask….Lion does not figure in the wide range of animal toys or figurines excavated from Indus sites."

"Whenever he gets the time, he should go and live amongst people who have given up worldly life…. A wise person should serve his body and family only to the extent that is functionally necessary…. The person who lays claim on the surplus wealth is nothing but a thief…. He should share all objects of enjoyment with everyone, right down to dogs, sinners…. Such is the attachment to one’s wife….How despicable is this body, which if buried is going to become the food of worms, or excreta if eaten by animals….Since a son is to thus revere his elders even after their death, what to say that he is expected to serve them when they are alive…. The person wishing to follow the path of dharma should steer clear of the five forms of Adharma."

"The Bhagavad Gita, while describing the qualities of a wise person says…. This verse is vividly illustrated in the story of king Rantideva occurring in the Srimad Bhagavatam…. He did not believe in hoarding, was above all attachments and was highly patient…. They were all trembling due to starvation and thirst….bowed to the dogs and their owner…. What I want is only this: That I be able to go and live in the hearts of all beings and undergo sufferings on their behalf, so that they may become free from all miseries."

"But to pull this statement out of context and give it as an advice for anyone is far from correct…. But how is one to recognise the guru? Obviously, he will be able to understand the difficulties of the disciples and clarify to them the meaning of the scriptures on the basis of logic and experience….
They will have to search in their own neighbourhood only….The guru chosen by him should be at least better than himself!…. Of course, if the ideal guru whose features have been enumerated in the beginning is available, then the sadhaka should immediately go and surrender to him…. It is just like going to another teacher for higher education, after completing the education in a school."

"There is Rama, the son of Ayodhya's king Dasharatha in his human birth, and there is Rama's divinity, his divine aura that overwhelms the Tulasi's entire Ramacharit-manas, one manifest - with attributes, and the other, unmanifest - without attributes. With main emphasis on his majesty in South Indian tradition this crown is taller than usual. His 'khadgasana' images are usually in three modes; one with his right foot moved forward represents him in a commander's disposition ready to rush for protecting a devotee in crisis or redeem him from some calamity. Harihara, a form in which he shares with Shiva half of the body. Basically a bird Garuda is seen for ages as Vishnu's ardent devotee, a learned human being and an auspicious presence, and in iconographic tradition often conceived with a man's face, anatomy, ornaments and ensemble. The Puranas are replete with tales of Garuda's divine exploits."

"It concedes that for an orderly social life a division into four groups based on the principle of varnadharma is necessary…. Each individual sometimes acts in a sattvika manner while at other times he may act in rajasic or tamasic manner, which means that the manifestation of a particular guna depends on circumstances…. Though all the three gunas are present in everyone, different persons are driven to act differently…. The karma that I have to perform should depend on my inherent gunas and should have the ability to regulate these gunas…. There is no instant transition to moksha…. An individual has to make his way towards moksha only through worldly life."

"Once as he was engaged in puja, a saint came to visit him….Like a true householder attached to his family, Gajendra sported in the water with his wives, children and friends…. Understanding that his end was imminent, they all slowly withdrew, till Gajendra was left alone…. If we reflect on it calmly, we will realise that there is no house in the world where the story of Gajendra does not play out…. The one who is careful towards the end is able to reform his death….
Gajendra’s hymn of praise is one of the greatest philosophical poems in the annals of world literature."

"Only a certain fraction of this karma is chosen by God in order to form the blueprint of our next birth…. The fruit that one experiences in this birth is due to prarabdha and a portion of the present agami…. Similarly, a fish in the Ganga does not accrue punya because of always living in Ganga…. A good karma can be annulled by a bad karma and a bad one by a good one…. Sometimes we also hear that prarabdha cannot be got rid of. It has to be spent through…. Bhagawan Vyasa says that for the full result of the karma to manifest, three things are necessary…. Then how to understand the statement that prarabdha should unavoidably be experienced?"

"Her epithet in the Devi-Mahatmya is Mahalakshmi. She is the wrathful four-armed goddess of battlefield represented holding in them various weapons…. A form of Lakshmi seated over a lotus laid over a golden seat and a pair of white elephants…. Except in some classical forms in Lakshmi-Narayana imagery Lakshmi is ordinarily two-armed…. Incarnation theory is the crux of Vaishnavism. Vishnu incarnates alone but Lakshmi also incarnates in simultaneity…. Though very rare some enthused artists have conceived on Ardhanarishvara line also Vishnu’s Ardhanarishvara images."

"Contrarily metaphysicians and theologians perceived his form as it manifested in the Upanishads and Puranas….The ‘Advaita’ philosophy also contends that the entire Creation is just the extension of One…. Dance illustrates one of the ever-first cosmic acts with which Shiva seems to have tamed violent motion and separated from it rhythm, moves that communicated emotions and states of mind – human mind and the cosmic, and disciplined and defined pace…. Unlike Vishnu who resorted to dance for accomplishing a contemplated objective, Shiva has been conceived more or less as a regular dancer performing for accomplishing an objective as also for pure aesthetic delight…. Unfurling locks of hair and his snakes floating into space portray the dynamics of the act."

"Here is a fragment from one of the most poignant episodes of Indian history…. This piece of history is from the Mahabharata…. She was dying with shame but inside, like a true kshatrani (woman of the warrior race), she was burning with anger…. I have heard that women who follow dharma were never brought before a public court….Greed is the destroyer of dharma. I do not desire a third boon…. Draupadi was as forgiving as mother earth herself…. Just then Arjuna saw his dear friend Bhagawan Krishna approaching him…. “Leave him, leave him. He is a brahmin and worthy of our worship. Their mother should not cry, like I have at the death of my children."

"During one such sacrifice, nine spiritually charged men entered the sacrificial hall….As for Bhagavat Dharma, it is the dharma spoken by God directly from his own mouth…. Like a person eating food finds himself gratified simultaneously in three ways…. We are all constantly taught by spiritual texts to offer or dedicate all our actions to God. However, the question remains as to how to practically carry out this injunction…..The only fruit of wealth is dharma... Therefore, there is no need for the Vedas to enjoin us to these things for which we already have a tendency….The real intention of the Vedic injunctions in these matters is to make a person abstain from them…”

"We assume that our happiness is the result of an interaction with external objects…. Suppose that an individual is deprived of sleep and food and pleasurable objects for a long time and then all of them are simultaneously offered to him…. Actually, seeking the answer to this question is the most significant pursuit in life…. The veil comes up again and the duality returns…. In this background, we can now analyse the nature of dukha (grief)."

"This middle path lies in between extreme asceticism on one side, and extreme indulgence on the other…. When standing under a Ashok tree, tired and exhausted, she raised her right hand for seeking support of a branch of the tree…. The unique balance that defined his entire life was pre-determined in this duality….One day, in the palace garden he frightened his attendants…. He ate less and less till his diet reduced to a sesame seed, and himself, to a mere skeleton…. Seven days after the attainment of enlightenment gods sent food for breaking his fast…. However, he postponed his ‘nirvana’ for three months till he visited the places he had reminiscences of."

"Actually, the one who worships Bhagwan Vishnu should get rich and the one who worships Shiva should become an avadhuta like Him…. Then he works hard again to acquire wealth. I render all his efforts futile…. However, Bhagawan Vishnu is not like that, it takes longer to please Him…. As a consequence, they later harassed the great God Himself…. On the seventh day, he bathed in the holy waters of Kedarnath and began to cut his head with an axe to offer into the fire…. The boy bowed respectfully before the demon and asked…. No one who commits sin against a great person can be safe and happy in this world."